"We chose in a democratic way, with secret ballot, and I'm not the only one deciding as we are an 11-member ExCo. The vote happened 3-4 days before closing elections. When there are issues in rugby elections they often target the weakest, Africa. There is something sick behind that, the idea that we are easily corrupted"

In fact, this should be in WR bye-laws. The votes of all 6 continental unions must be decided by internal ballot, with the results published. If not all countries vote directly in the WR Council, it would be very reasonable they decide the votes of the continents always in a democratic way. It must be in the bye-laws.

The way Pichot tells the story, Babbou went from being against Beaumont to being in favor of him. But there were two candidates running against Pichot and it is Laporte and the FFR who have always had close links with African and particularly North African rugby. Laporte gave a long interview a month before the vote where he discussed everything he had worked on with African rugby and plans for the future. I posted it on the African rugby thread. It isn’t a big surprise that they voted the way that they did.

Africa choosing Laporte makes sense in a vacuum. The issue is that they supported him while their Tunisian chairman, a North African with strong links to French rugby, was part of Pichot’s camp. Babbou admits to that in L’Equipe. Won’t you would feel deceived if the dude couldn’t bring the votes home?

That said, Pichot is a dumbass. No need to burn bridges. He should be graceful in defeat, lay low for a while and let Laporte drown in his promises.

In the interview it was clear why he felt that about Babbou and even he said that he is not naive and that he understood that it was a political issue and therefore him try to communicate with him later.

Regarding the other, the same is perfectly normal to have different opinions.

Canalina, my dear...You didn't understand what I meant, precisely I didn't say that preferring Beaumont or Pichot is to defend the "status quo" or not, my criticism is to use the status quo as a position in the election, given that to discuss and try to enhance Rugby if we are going to use arguments that the best is that everything remains the same but at the same time want that rugby changes and expands don't have any sense.

Nor did I mention you specifically, neither because of the status quo nor because of the racist comments, beyond you considering that the africans are "good people but lazy and a bit slow".